explained by Turning from the power of Satan unto God And the following clause viz. And the Glory of thy people Israel signifieth the same thing Namely that in the place of their outward and Ceremonial observances called by the Apostle Beggarly Elements He should bring in among them a far more Noble viz. an inward substantial and Everlasting Righteousness and by abrogating that and establishing only this Righteousness He should enlarge their Church an accession of the Gentiles being by that means made unto it Fifthly This is expressed by S. Iohn the Baptist immediately before our Saviour's solemn entrance upon his office as the business he was undertaking Matth. 3. 11 12. I indeed baptize you with Water unto repentance that is especially from the more plain and confessed exorbitances but he that cometh after me is mightier than I whose shoes I am not worthy to bear he shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost and with fire which will take away those stains and pollutions that Water cannot whose fan is in his hand and he will throughly purge his floor Sixthly Again after our Saviour's entrance upon his office he himself declared that He came to call sinners to Repentance And that he was so far from coming to destroy the Law and the Prophets that he came 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to fulfil or perfect them that is by giving more and higher instances of Moral Duties than were before expresly given And he tells the Jews presently after that Except their Righteousness shall exceed the Righteousness of the Scribes and Pharisees that is unless it be above their Practical and meerly External Righteousness they shall in no case enter into the Kingdom of Heaven And he abundantly made it appear as will be quickly shewn that the Reformation of mens lives and Purification of their Natures were the Great Business that he designed Lastly This was frequently asserted after he forsook the World by the Apostles he left behind him S. Peter told his Countrey-men Acts 3. 26. That as God sent Christ to bless them so the Blessing designed them by him consisted in turning them from their iniquities To you first saith he God having raised up his Son Iesus sent him to bless you by turning every one of you from his iniquities Again Acts 5. 31. The same Apostle with others saith that Him hath God exalted with his Right Hand to be a Prince and a Saviour to give Repentance to Israel and forgiveness of Sins Repentance first and then Forgiveness S. Iohn tells us 1 Epist. â—… 8. that for this purpose the Son of God was manifested that he might destroy the works of the Devil And S. Paul calleth the Gospel of Christ The Mystery of Godliness 1 Tim. 3. 16. The Doctrine that is according to Godliness And gives us to understand that that which the Grace of God which brings Salvation teacheth is that denying Vngodliness and all worldly Lusts we should live Soberly Righteously and Godlily in this Present World Tit. 2. 12. CHAP. III. A Particular Demonstration that Holiness is the only Design of the Precepts of the Gospel And that they require 1. The Most Extensive Holiness 2. The most Intensive An Objection answered BUT to give a more particular proof of what we have undertaken First It is most apparent That Holiness is the Design the only Design of the Christian Precepts and that this is the Mark which they are wholly levelled at What the Apostle spake of the Iewish may be much more said of the Christian Law that It is Holy just and Good For as Clemens Alexandrinus in his Paedagogus saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Even Infant-Christianity is perfection compared with the Law or the Mosaical Dispensation There is no Affirmative Precept in the Gospel but it either Commands Holiness in the general or one or more Particular Vertue or Habit of Holiness or some Essential Act or Acts of it or Means and Helps to the Acquiring Maintaining or Encrease of it Such as Hearing and Reading the Word Prayer Meditation Good Conference Watchfulness against Temptations Avoiding occasions of evil c. And there is no Negative Precept but doth forbid the Contrary to some one or more of those Duties but doth forbid some thing or other that doth tend either directly or indirectly immediately or mediately in its own nature or by reason of some Circumstance to the depraving of Humane Nature and rendring us Perfectly Wicked or in some degree or other less holy To make this appear by going over the Several Precepts contained in the Gospel would be a work of too much time but whosoever as he reads them shall duly consider each of them cannot be to seek for Satisfaction concerning the truth of what I have now said and I dare undertake he will readily acknowledge That there is nothing that is not upon its own or some one or other account greatly Becoming us and Perfective of Humane Nature in the whole Gospel Commanded And that there is not any thing in it self and in all respects innocent there forbidden This can be by no means said concerning the Precepts of the Law of Moses but that it may concerning those of the Gospel is absolutely Certain But my whole Discourse upon this present Argument shall be confined to these two Heads Namely to shew That the Christian Precepts require the most Extensive and most Intensive Holiness that is exactly such a Holiness as hath been described First They require the most Extensive Holiness Not onely towards God but also towards our Neighbour and our selves In the forecited place Tit. 2. 12. S. Paul puts all these together under the Phrases of Living Soberly Righteously and Godlily as making up that Holiness which the Grace of God that brings Salvation teacheth The Precepts of our Saviour command us not onely to give unto God the things that are God's but also to Caesar the things that are Caesar's Not only to obey God in all things but to be subject likewise to every Ordinance of Man for the Lords Sake that is to every Ordinance of Man that doth not Contradict the Law of God Not only to fear God but also to honor the King and to obey our spiritual Governors likewise which watch for our Souls c. and to behave our selves towards all persons sutably to the Relations we stand in to them Wives to submit themselves to their own Husbands as unto the Lord Husbands to love their Wives even as Christ loved the Church Children to obey their Parents in the Lord and Fathers not to provoke their Children to wrath but to bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord Servants to be obedient to their Masters with singleness of heart as unto Christ c. and Masters to do the same things unto them forbearing threatning or a harsh behaviour towards them knowing that they have a Master in Heaven with whom is no respect of persons We are commanded to love
own souls And therefore it could do no other than infinitely become the Son of God himself to endure the Cross and despise the shame for the joy that was set before him taking that joy in no other sence than hath been generally understood viz. for the happiness of Heaven consisting in a full enjoyment and undisturbed possession of the Blessed Deity nor is there any reason why we should enquire after any other signification of that word which may exclude this And on the other hand to be diligent in the service of God for fear of hell understanding it as a state perfectly opposite to that which we have been describing is in a like manner from a principle of love to God and true goodness as well as self-love and is no more unworthy of a Son of God than of a mere servant And thus the truth of this proposition That to make men Holy is to confer upon them the greatest of blessings by the little that hath been said is made plainly apparent CHAP. XIII The Second Account of our Saviour's preferring the business of making men holy before any other viz. That this is to do the best service to God An objection answered against the Author's Discourse of the Design of Christianity IT remains secondly to be shewn That to promote the business of Holiness in the world is to do God Almighty the best service And this will be dispatcht in a very few words For is it not without dispute better service to a Prince to reduce Rebels to their Allegiance than to procure a pardon under his Seal for them This is so evidently true that to do this latter except it be in order to the former business is not at all to serve him nay it is to do him the greatest of disservices I need not apply this to our present purpose And therefore to be sure the work of making men holy and bringing over sinners to the obedience of his Father must needs have been much more in the eye of our Blessed Saviour than that of delivering them from their deserved punishments simply and in it self considered For his love to him will be I hope universally acknowledged to be incomparably greater than it is to us as very great as ' t is None can question but that by our Apostacy from God we have most highly dishonoured him we have robbed him of a Right that he can never be willing to let go viz. The obedience that is indispensably due to him as he is our Creator continual Preserver our infinitely bountiful Benefactor and absolute Soveraign And therefore it is as little to be doubted that Christ would in the first place concern himself for the Recovery of that Right And but that both works are carried on together and inseparably involved in each other he must necessarily be very greatly and far more solicitous about the effecting of this Design than of that of delivering wicked Rebels from the mischiefs and miseries they have made themselves lyable to by their disobedience So that laying all these considerations together what in the world can be more indisputable than that our Savious chief and ultimate design in coming from Heaven to us and performing and suffering all he did for us was to turn us from our iniquities to reduce us to intire and universal obedience and to make us partakers of inward real righteousness and true holiness And we cannot from this last discourse but clearly understand that it is most infinitely reasonable and absolutely necessary that it should be so But now if after all this it be objected that I have defended a notion concerning the Design of Christianity different from that which hath hitherto been constantly received by all Christians viz. That it is to display and magnifie the exceeding riches of God's Grace to fallen mankind in his Son Jesus I answer that he will be guilty of very great injustice towards me that shall censure me as labouring in this discourse to propagate any new notion For I have therein endeavoured nothing else but a true explication of the old one it having been grossly misunderstood and is still by very many to their no small prejudice Those therefore that say that the Christian Religion designeth to set forth and glorifie the infinite Grace of God in Jesus Christ to wretched sinners and withall understand what they say as they speak most truly so do they assert the very same thing that I have done For as hath been shewn not only the Grace of God is abundantly displaied and made manifest in the Gospel to sinners for this end that they â—…ay thereby be effectually moved and perswaded to forsake their sins but also the principal Grace that is there exhibited doth consist in delivering us from the power of them Whosoever will acknowledge sin to be as we have proved it is in its own nature the greatest of all evils and holiness the chiefest of all blessings will not find it easie to deny this And besides as we have likewise shewn men are not capable of God's pardoning Grace till they have truly repented them of all their sins that is have in will and affection sincerely left them And also that if they were caPable of it so long as they continue vile slaves to their lusts that Grace by being bestowed upon them cannot make them happy nor yet cause them to cease from being very miserable in regard of their disquieting and tormenting nature in which is laid the foundation of Hell it self The free Grace of God is infinitely more magnified in renewing our Natures than it could be in the bare justification of our persons And to justifie a wicked man while he continueth so if it were possible for God to do it would far more disparage his Iustice and Holiness than advance his Grace and Kindness Especially since his forgiving sin would signifie so little if it be not accompanied with the destruction of it In short then doth God most signally glorifie himself in the world when he most of all communicates himself that is his Glorious perfections to the souls of men And then do they most Glorifie God when they most partake of them and are rendered most like unto him But because nothing is I perceive more generally mistaken than the notion of Gods Glorifying himself I will adde something more for the better understanding of this and I am conscious to my self that I cannot do it so well as in the words of the Excellent man we a while since quoted Mr. Iohn Smith sometimes Fellow of Queens College in Cambridge When God seeks his own Glory he doth not so much endeavour any thing without himself He did not bring this stately Fabrick of the universe into being that he might for such a monument of his mighty Power and Beneficence gain some Panegyricks or Applause from a little of that fading breath which he had made Neither was that Gracious Contrivance of restoring lapsed men to himself a
the honour that is due to that order of spirits which is immediately subordinate to Him and above the Daemons and Heroes all he â—…aith concerning it is that it consisteth in understanding the excellency of their natures and in endeavouring after a likeness to them where as he hath afterward a very excellent Discourse of tho necessary obligation men are under of praying to God But I have not yet instanced in the worst part of the Popish prayers to departed Saints the blasphemies contained in those to the Virgin Mary are such as I would not defile my pen with the recital of any of them did I not know it to be too needful so to do She is stiled in their publique prayers the Saviour of Desparing Souls the bestower of Spiritual Grace and Dispenser of the most Divine Gifts One higher than the heavens and deeper than the earth and many such compellations as are proper onely to some one Person of the glorious Trinity are given in them to her In her Anthem she is supplicated for pardon of sin for Grace and for Glory And the forementioned Learned Bishop observeth that in the Mass-Book penned One thousand five hundred thirty eight and used in the Polonian Churches they call the Blessed Virgin viam ad vitam c. the way to Life the Governess of all the World the Reconciler of sinners with God the Fountain of Remission of sins Light of Light And at last she is there saluted with an Ave universae Trinitatis Mater Hail thou Mother of the Holy Trinity And he adds that the Council of Constance in the Hymn they call a Sequence did invocate the Virgin in the same manner as Councils did use to invocate the Holy Ghost That they call her the Mother of Grace the Remedy of the Miserable the Fountain of Mercy and the Light of the Church And lastly his Lordship alleageth a Psalter of our Lady that hath been several times Printed at Venice at Paris and Leipsich the Title of which is The Psalter of the Blessed Virgin compiled by the Seraphical Doctor S. Bonaventure c. Which consisteth of the Psalms of David One hundred and fifty in number in which the name of Lord is left out and that of Lady put in and altered where it was necessary they should to make sense Therein whatsoever David said whether prayers or praises of God and Christ they say of the Blessed Virgin and whether saith he all that can be said without intolerable Blasphemy we suppose needs not much disputation Who would not readily conclude it altogether impossible for any men to invent or approve nay or not to have indignation against such daring and most execrable Impieties that are not utterly berefâ—… of their senses or are but one remove from perfect Atheists There are diverse other most prodigious sayings concerning the Virgin Mary transcribed out of the approved Books of Great Sons of the Roman Church in the now cited Disswasive from Popery to which I refer the Reader And to them I will adde some which may doubtless vie with the worst that we can well imagine were ever uttered of one Iohannes Argentus a Prime Catholique youth which he hath exposed to the view of the world in a Right worthy piece treating of the seven Excellencies of the most Blessed Virgin Saith he Christus servit atque assiduè ministrat Matri suae Christ serveth and continually administreth to his Mother and next thus vents himself in a great fit of Devotion to her O si liceret quà m libenter me illi socium adjungerem c. If it might be lawful Oh how gladly would I joyn my self with him as his Companion How willingly would I learn of him the way of perfectly serving thy self and God! the Reader will not anon judge his placing the Virgin before God himself as proceeding from inadvertency How willingly would I ease my most sweet Iesus of this his labour O Lord Iesu my most lovely Saviour permit me to perform some service to thy Mother but if thou wilt not grant me this yet at least give me leave that whilest thou servest thy Mother I may serve thee And he tells us afterward that God is in other creatures after a threefold manner by his Essence by his Presence and by his Power but in the most Blessed Virgin after a fourth manner viz. by Identity or being one and the self-same with her Who could think that the worst should be yet behind Let the Reader judge whether it be or no. He farther saith That her seventh degree of excellency consists in this quòd sit Domina Dei that she is the Mistriss of God And then a line or two after as if he had thought that he had not yet sufficiently performed the part of a most impudent blasphemer he adds that supra ipsum thronum Dei solium suum collocavit she hath erected her seat above the very throne of God This was a Fellow that had improved to purpose the Prayers he had learn'd of his holy Mother Surely she could not find in her heart to deny so passionately devout a worshipper of the Holy Virgin a very considerable share in the Merits of her Supererogations or rather may we not think that she would judge him so great a Saint as to stand in no need of them and to have of his own to spare wherewith to add to the riches of her treasury for the relief of those who being conscious to themselves of being too dry and cold devotionists can be perswaded to go to the charge of them Have we not now infinite cause to wonder that the Papists should take it so very heinouâ—…ly at our hands that we fasten upon them the imputation of Idolatry This very wretch would have been sensible of an unsufferable abuse should one have call'd him Idolater as Blasphemous a one as he was and notwithstanding his having even more than Deified a mere Creature and advanced her Throne even above her Creator's Lord to what heights of Impiety will Superstition lead men and how thick is that darkness she blindeth the eyes of her captives with that it will not suffer them to discern that guilt which is no whit less apparent than is the Sun it self But Thirdly The grossest Instance of the Church of Rome's Idolatry we have yet omitted and that is their worshipping the Consecrated Bread not as God's Representative but which is far worse as God himself in the Sacrament of the Altar as they call it and on other occasions This is no where to be parallel'd for the sottishness of it no not among the most Barbarous and Bruitish Nations it being founded upon the most absurd contradictious portentous and monstrous conceit that ever entered the head of any mortal as they have had it unanswerably and to the confusion of their faces proved to them by a multitude of Learned Persons of the Reformed Religion who have also so fully and with such mighty and irresistible strength made